Saturday, July 04, 2009

Sarah Palin - Train Wrecks Get Top Ratings

Details about the Big Run Away From Blogging Bullies and Evil Media, aka Gov. Palin resigns, are mighty strange given the rambling speech the broadcast by soon-to-exit governor. (Full rambling text here.)

The Mudflats blog has some info that real troubles are about the submerge the You Betcha Girl:

"I’ve now been able to get independent information from multiple sources that all of this precedes what are said to be possible federal indictments against Palin, concerning an embezzlement scandal related to the building of Palin’s house and the Wasilla Sports Complex built during her tenure. Both structures, it is said, feature the “same windows, same wood, same products.” Federal investigators have been looking into this for some time, and indictments could be imminent, according to the Alaska sources. From Brad Blog

“I don’t think this is buckling to pressure,” said Ayers. “I think this is her coming to the realization that the legislature in Alaska and that some bloggers and activists in Alaska are going to do everything they can to stymie her progress. This is a governor who didn’t run for the office because she wanted a title. She wanted to make significant change in the state. She realized that that was no longer going to be able to happen, because things had become so partisan there.” From HuffPo

Either Sarah Palin is leaving the people of Alaska high and dry to pursue her long shot national political ambitions or she simply can’t handle the job now that her popularity has dimmed and oil revenues are down. Either way, her decision to abandon her post and the people of Alaska who elected her continues a pattern of bizarre behavior that more than anything else may explain the decision she made today. From The Daily Beast

Watching the family scene at her house on the raw video running on CNN right now, it is obvious that little knowledge about this was shared ahead of time, no matter what Palin said in the conference itself.

What we are seeing here is either a preface to some indictment, or the final chapter in the career of what has been the biggest political joke of the 21st century. She is so obviously a combination of extreme narcissism and even more extremely bad advice by really, really pathetically bad advisors.

That was the claim coming from the office of Governor Sarah Palin, who likes to use the phrase “frivolous ethics complaints.” That was nine days ago.

Today, we learn that “millions of dollars” is in fact, actually $296,000, as far as ethics complaints go. Numbers shmumbers.

The complete breakdown is not yet available, but we do know this about the three spendiest ones:

$187,797 stemmed from the Troopergate investigation, a good chunk of which Palin initiated herself. We’ll get back to that.

$43,028 stemmed from a complaint by Andree McLeod which resulted in a recommendation that a state employee undergo ethics training for a series of “troubling emails.”

$29,962 most likely came from the “travel gate” investigation in which Palin reimbursed almost $10,000 for expenses billed to the state for her children’s travel expenses.

That’s the top three, none of which sound particularly “frivolous.” So once we crunch the numbers, it’s highly likely that the most expensive investigation brought about by an individual, is Palin’s investigation of herself. And let’s just review that one more time.

The Legislature found enough evidence to approve $100,000 to investigate Palin’s firing of the Commissioner of Public Safety, in light of accusations that he was dismissed for not firing her ex-brother-in-law with whom there was bad blood. They spent $75,000 of the money allocated, and the bipartisan Legislative Council (composed of 8 Republicans and 4 Democrats) voted unanimously to go forward. An independent investigation by someone that they all agreed to found that Palin violated the Executive Branch Ethics Act. They unanimously voted to release that decision to the public.

As a counter-measure, and a panicked move to look good during the campaign, Palin (with the advice from the McCain cadre of lawyers headed up by Ed O’Callaghan who had no license to practice law in the State of Alaska) initiated her own ethics complaint against herself, knowing that the outcome would be decided by a friendly panel of governor-appointed people who report to her. Guess what? They found her innocent, and refused to even investigate the matter of testimony from Palin that went completely against testimony from the former commissioner. Frivolous ethics complaint? No….a calculated one that the state paid for.

What did the legislature do about their own $75,000 investigation that found the governor in violation of the Ethics Act? Nothing. So, why did we, as a state, pay that $75,000? What did we get for that money? Maybe that’s the question we should be asking.

Speaking of not knowing what you get for your money…

Palin herself reportedly has incurred over $600,000 in personal legal bills defending against complaints, although she won’t provide a breakdown of the expenses or what cases they were for. Palin friends and supporters set up a legal defense fund and are soliciting contributions for her legal bills.

"Sarah Palin doesn’t care about statecraft or making government smaller and/or more efficient. She just wants to be the IT girl.

She doesn’t care about experience or gravitas because those are things you would need only if you wished to affect change and make a difference. Those are things you only need if you wish to hold office and steer the ship of state. Sarah Palin only wishes to ride the wave of celebrity.

2 comments:

of course the author will erase any message that is not in agreement with the opinions written here. But at this point, with the economy facing possible collapse, Sarah Palin, with her notions of smaller government and President McCain may have been what this country needed. I live in Maryland, work for the government, and people all around me who don't are going into foreclosure, making huge sacrifices, and those who have any extra money are saving, not spending. No one has any confidence. Yet, surprisingly, people like you are hell-bent on sinking a person's reputation. Please, get to the issues affecting all US citizens, the country is going to hell in a hand basket and Sarah Palin has nothing at all to do with the state of the union. She is trying to save money for Alaska by stepping down to not have the taxpayers paying for uneccessary legal fees.

glad you have that government job to shield you from economic woes. if government is too big, maybe you should step down from your job too.i have little enthusiasm for a "leader" who can't complete one term of office.and if you had actually read the post above, you'd see that ex-Gov. Palin isn't saving "millions".